Coca-Cola announces commitment to CO2 refrigeration Neville Isdell, chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., in remarks made at the Greenpeace China Business Lecture Series, announced that Coca-Cola and its bottlers will purchase and deploy 100,000 CO2 coolers by the end of 2010. According to the company, this will be the largest deployment of CO2 technology by any firm. Source: ACHR News Refrigerant metering system from Emerson climate technologies Emerson Climate Technologies introduces the Refrigerant Metering System, which enables users to monitor and track refrigerant usage. This helps users to maintain compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s reporting and record-keeping requirements for Class I and Class II refrigerants. With meters and valves, the system measures the amount of refrigerant a service provider adds to a refrigeration system over time. The system’s integrated computer then stores this data, making it available locally and remotely. Source: The HVAC&R Industry Residential heat recovery in Europe The European market for heat recovery is set for continued growth. It is estimated that sales reached approximately 207,316 units in 2007, which is a 12 % increase from 2006. Germany is the most dominant country in the heat recovery market, with approximate sales of 51,400 units in 2007, closely followed by Finland, UK and Netherlands. One of the main drivers for this the growth is the change in legislation and construction. New legislation has guaranteed that building standards across Europe place a high emphasis on minimising energy consumption and rising energy prices have made consumers more receptive towards alternative energy resources.

DOE & national laboratories project targets commercial viability for enhanced geothermal systems Ormat Desert Peak aims to be first U.S. commercial power project using EGS. Work has begun on the first application of an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) utilizing a production well at a commercial geothermal site. This project will demonstrate the viability of EGS and the technology's potential to generate clean, renewable baseload geothermal electricity in many areas throughout the country. "Ormat anticipates Desert Peak will be the country's first commercial project to tap into an EGS resource and produce substantial levels of electricity providing a rebirth for certain geothermal prospects in the U.S.," said Ormat Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Lucien Bronicki. "Our objective in the Desert Peak EGS project is to demonstrate that EGS technology can achieve its potential of providing 100,000 MW of clean, base-load power, as identified in last year's DOE study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and show that this technology will enable geothermal electricity to be produced in regions where it is not currently economically viable," he added. Bronicki noted that the participants in this R&D project, include in addition to DOE and GeothermEx, also Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, University of Utah EGI, TerraTek, Pinnacle Technologies and US Geological Survey. Commenting on the potential of the Desert Peak Resource, Subir Sanyal, President of GeothermEx said: "The Desert Peak resource, which currently supports 11 MW of electricity production from a conventional geothermal resource, is likely to have the potential to support 50 MW or more from an EGS development." Source: The HVAC&R Industry

Residential heat pump systems in Japan Hasegawa Kohei, Japan Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has been developing various heat-pump systems for commercial and residential use. This article introduces two of them. One is a residential central heating system that uses a heat pump to produce hot water efficiently, while the other is a duct-type air conditioning system designed to heat a whole house. It can also provide ventilation. Both can provide better comfort and safety than normal air conditioners, and the market for systems such as this is expected to expand. The article presents their specifications and technology. Low-energy house integrated with heat pump system in Japan Katsunori Nagano, Japan Japan consists of five main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Okinawa and other smaller islands. The country extends from the sub-frigid zones in the north to the subtropics in the south, with average annual temperatures varying from 6.4 oC in Wakkanai-city (Hokkaido) to 22.4 oC in Naha-city (Okinawa). This report describes two examples of a traditional and a modern low-energy house with two heat pumps for space heating and hot water supply in Hokkaido, Japan. From the heat source point of view, it has been confirmed that ground heat source and exhaust air play very important parts, and are very effective in the cold region. Design of an integrated heat pump system for space heating, hot water supply and ventilation, with a heat recovery unit and also a humidity control device, is expected shortly. Integrated CO2 Heat Pump Systems for Low-Energy and Passive Houses Jørn Stene, Norway Low-energy and passive houses are superinsulated and airtight buildings where the space heating demand is much lower than that of buildings constructed in accordance with current building codes. Due to the low space heating demand, the annual heating demand for domestic hot water (DHW) typically constitutes 50 to 85 % of the total annual heating demand for the residence. A heat pump system can be used to cover the entire heating demand in a low-energy or passive house. It can be designed as a stand-alone system, i.e. a heat pump water heater in combination with a separate unit for space heating, or can be an integrated unit for combined space heating and hot water heating. Due to the more compact design, the latter system is most likely to achieve the lowest investment and installation costs and therefore the best profitability. Integrated residential heat pump systems using carbon dioxide (CO2, R744) as the working fluid can achieve a particularly high Seasonal Performance Factor (SPF) in low-energy and passive houses due to the unique characteristics of the CO2 heat pump cycle. However, the energy efficiency is very dependent on the design and operation of the heat pump unit and the secondary systems.

Performance of a Ground Source Heat Pump System in a Near-Zero Energy Home Xiaobing Liu, USA Due to its high energy efficiency, ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems have been applied in many zero or near-zero energy buildings, which use renewable power generated on-site to offset partially, or completely, the energy consumed in the building on an annual basis. How does the GSHP system perform in these buildings? How much does it contribute to reaching the goal of zero or near-zero energy? In this article, the real performance of a near-zero energy home and its GSHP system will be presented. Heat Pump Water Heaters for Apartment Buildings and Blocks of Flats of Low-Energy/Passive House Standard Jørn Stene and Tore Hjerkinn, Norway In apartment buildings and block of flats of such buildings of low-energy and passive house standard, the annual energy demand for heating of domestic hot water (DHW) typically constitutes 60 to 85 % of the total annual heating demand of the building. Since the DHW heating is the dominating heat load, a centralized DHW system that meets the entire demand can be a very profitable installation. Possible heating systems include electric immersion heaters, solar collectors in combination with electric immersion heaters for supplementary heating, gas- or pellet-fired boilers and heat pump water heaters (HPWH) utilizing e.g. outdoor air, exhaust ventilation air, groundwater, boreholes in crystalline rock or grey water as a heat source. A HPWH using carbon dioxide (CO2, R744) as the working fluid will typically achieve 20 % higher COP than the most energy-efficient HPWH system on the market using HFC or propane as working fluid. Air-to-water and water-to-water CO2 HPWHs in the capacity range from about 5 to 60 kW have now become commercially available in Japan and Europe from a number of Japanese manufacturers (www.R744.com). A Low-Energy Commercial Building With Ground-Source Heat Pumps Frédéric Genest and Vasile Minea, Canada The Canadian low-energy building presented in this article integrates ground-source heat pumps with floor heating for space heating and free cooling. Featuring also a two-stage outdoor make-up air preheating unit with exhaust air and geothermal heat recovery, and hybrid ventilation, optimized natural lighting and improved envelope, the annual electrical energy consumption was reduced by 71.4 % compared to the reference cold climate building. This ranks this building among the highest performance structures in North America.